Protective sheeting and method of manufacturing the same.



UNITED STATES PATENT orrion.

SAMUEL CABOT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

PROTECTIVE SHEETING AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 14, 1905.

Application filed June 23, 1905. Serial No. 266,680.

. sists of an improved method by which the same are prepared and in the finished article of manufacture resulting from the said method. In the manufacture of this sheetingI employ an adhesive composition which consists of paste or paint composed of comminuted solid inorganic incombustible material, preferably a fibrous inorganic material, such as asbestos or asbestiform tale in suspension in an adhesive, which is preferably an inorganic and antiseptic adhesive, such as a solution of borate, biborate, or silicate of soda or potash, to which mixture may be added, if desired, a pigment to color the coating. The character of the inorganic adhesive mentioned is such that when a coating whereof they constitute acomponent is set or dried it assumes a hard and brittle condition, so that the continuity of such a coating if laid upon a flexible material or surface will become cracked, broken, and partially detached, and therefore seriously impared in its resistant and protective qualities. In the preparation of protective sheets, which may be applied as floor or wall coverings or as wrappings for valuable and perishable goods, unless such sheetings be specially contrived and constructed, so that the tendency of the coating to crack ofi may be successfully obviated, one of the principal purposes of the said composition or of compositions analogous thereto, which possess similar physical characteristics, is frustrated. By my improved method of compounding and constructing the protective coating and sheets coated therewith this difficulty is overcome and the manufacture, use, and shipment of such sheets is made readily possible without danger of impairing the continuity of the protective film by the ordinary conditions of use and wear.

The method of preparation of the sheetings is as follows: I take a fibrous sheet of ordinary materialsuch as cloth, felt, or paper which when unprotected is combustible and susceptible also to the attacks of the slower oxidation of decay and to the depredations of insects, and apply to this fibrous and destructible organic sheet a coating of resistant or refractory material such as above described. By reason of the character and consistency of the adhesive employed as the vehicle for the inorganic refractory material the coating is in whole or in part superficial upon the fibrous sheet and in proportion to the weight and thickness of the coating it is brittle and liable to crack irregularly and become locally detached from the sheet after it is hard. Therefore, preferably, while the coated sheets of fibrous material are still soft and thecoating itself but recently set I corrugate.the sheets.

This corrugation may be effected most readily by passing the sheets between corrugated rolls. These corrugations may be straight ridges or wrinkles across the wid th of the material, and in this condition will enable the material to be rolled quite tightly upon an axis parallel to the corrugations. By this method a resistant inorganic adhesive veneer is applied to a fibrous organic sheet whereof the inherent qualities of strength and flexibility.

are preserved, whilethe article of manufacture as an integer is highly refractory and resistant to destructive agencies.

The effect of the corrugation of the compound sheet, which consists of the fibrous base and a veneer of protective material, is to scam the veneer or coating with a multitude of minute fissures or cracks, so that the veneer becomes, as it were, a firmly-adhering mosaic composed of very minute and closely-fitting pieces. The advantages of this cracking are that the sheet as a whole may readily be rolled without breaking the substantial continuity of the hard coating, and, further, that under conditions of rapid oxidation, especially on the application of great heat, which generates gases in the body of the fibrous sheet, a great number of microscopic vents are provided, the gases escaping readily through the fissures of the coating. This prevents the accumulation of gas-pressure, which in the case of a continuous and unbroken protective coating, is liable toburst the coating and destroy its protective capacity.

In the manufacture of protective sheetings according to this method the proportions of ingredients used in compounding the coating may be varied to suit varying conditions. I have found, however, that for heavy felting a coating compounded as follows is suitable and efiective: ten parts, by weight, of borate, biborate, or silicate of potash or soda dissolved in twenty parts, by weight, of water,

in the mixture.

thirty parts, by weight, of comminuted asbestos or asbestiform talc, and, if desired, a pigment which preferably should not exceed five parts, by weight, of the mixture. For thin felts or paper or for cloth I have found it advisable to modify the composition as follows: using ten parts, by weight, of borate, biborate, or silicate of potash or soda dissolved in ten parts, by weight, of water, ten parts, by weight, of comminuted asbestos or asbestiform talc, and pigment which preferably should not exceed five parts, by weight, Practical demonstration leads me to believe that a coating composed of solid comminuted inorganic refractory material and an adhesive vehicle which is also inorganic and preferably antiseptic constitutes a coating more effective to resist oxidation and other destructive agencies than such inorganic adhesives as the silicates, borates, &c., when applied alone, although these have been found, as is well known, to lend resistant properties to otherwise destructible'materials; but whether the adhesive film has incorporated with it or not the comminuted inorganic material, it is, if heavy enough to be an effective protective coating, so brittle when dry and hard that unless suitable measures are contrived to prevent, it will break, crack irregularly,and become locally detached if the material to which it is applied is bent or folded.

' My invention, therefore, is applicable to and embraces situations wherein flexible sheets are rendered resistant or refractory by any of the protective coatings which when dry and hard become brittle.

I claim 1. The method of manufacturing protective material which consists in coating a sheet of fibrous organic material with a superficial veneer of inorganic adhesive material, brittle when dry, then drying and corrugating the sheet.

2. The method of manufacturing protective material which consists in coating a sheet of fibrous organic material with a superficial veneer composed of inorganic comminuted refractory material in suspensionin an adhesive vehicle, brittle when dry, then drying and corrugating the sheet.

3. The method of manufacturing protective material which consists in coating a sheet of fibrous organic material with a superficial veneer composed of comminuted asbestos in suspension 1n an morganic antiseptic adhesive fibrous organic material with an adhesive superficial veneer composed of comminuted inorganic refractory materlal in suspension 1n an adheslve, and subsequently producing a multitude of minute fissures in the veneer.

6. A protective sheet composed of fibrous material coated with a superficial veneer of adhesive refractory material, said veneer subdivided by a multitude of minute fissures.

7. A protective sheet composed of fibrous organic material, coated with a superficial veneer composed of comminuted inorganic refractory material in suspension in an inorganic adhesive, the veneer subdivided by a multitude of minute fissures.

8. A protective sheet composed of fibrous organic material superficially coated witha veneer composed of fibrous inorganic refractory material such as asbestos or asbestiform talc, incorporated with an inorganic adhesive such as borate, biborate or silicate of potash or soda, the said veneer subdivided by a multitude'of fissures.

' Signed by me at Boston,- Massachusetts, this 8th day of June, 1905.

SAM. GABOT.

Witnesses:

JosEPH T. BRENNAN, GRAoE E. GIBBoNs. 

